Evolution III: Know Thyself.
The walk to Beldath's main water reservoir from the command bunker was about an hour and a half, but Azeroth ran. He stood at the edge of the expansive, manmade lake and gazed at his reflection. The governor was down there, under the water. He was sure of it. He discarded pistol and secured the comlink to his belt. The marine kneeled down and peered into the water. He watched his reflection as he traced the scar on his scull.
With a forward roll, Azeroth dove into the water and began to swim towards the bottom of the pool. In the center of the murky pond, a large, steel grill was welded over the main intake tube. He grabbed the grate and pulled it out of the way, the welding joints were fakes. Inside the two meter diameter intake valve, an airlock was nestled quietly out of view.
He entered the airlock and hit the button to shut the exterior door. When the water drained from the room, he ripped the keypad from the wall and the door shorted. He forced it opened and stepped into the room.
Quickly, Azeroth made his way across the equipment room. He snatched a bolt pistol from the weapons rack as he made his way over to the next chamber. This facility was the heart of the governor's resistance. His treachery had spent years to reveal.
"Commander Nerih," Azeroth whispered, "I am very close to the governor, but hold off your bombardment. You will want to have this building intact."
"Why is that, marine?"
"The evidence in this room will show the rebels who or what they are truly following. You will be interested to know the origin of the governor's treachery. Send troops to my location instead."
"What about the governor?"
"I will take care of him. We have history."
*****
Azeroth entered the main chamber of the hidden base. It was a dark chapel with large pillars and banners of purple and silver rings hanging from the ceiling. Priests and clerics in purple robes wandered around the room. The far wall was a mural of a giant silver ring, bathed in exalted light with hands clasping it from all directions.
The monks never heard Azeroth enter the room, but none could ignore the loud shouts of his bolt pistol as it announced his presence. He ran into the room and mowed down the fleeing men as he advanced. He paused to reload his weapon and cough the remaining cultists as they neared the large blast door beneath the graven mural.
A silver altar sat on a raised dais in the middle of the room. On the altar, relics and tombs of the heretical faith sat as an affront to the Emperor. Azeroth jumped up on the dais and gripped the altar with his powerful hands. With a grunt of effort he overturned it and sent metallic artifacts clanging across the floor amid a rain of paper.
From the shadows, a figure adorned in purple and carrying a staff capped with a large silver ring stepped out. "My dear Azeroth, how good of you to return to me."
"YOU!" Azeroth boomed as he leapt from the platform. "I will enjoy watching you die!"
"Temper. You always were such a hot-headed creation." The governor tsked as he waved a finger at the advancing marine.
Azeroth met his tormentor with a hail of bullets. An orange orb encircled the man and deflected the shots harmlessly away.
"I would watch your self, Azeroth." The governor stated grimly as he leveled his staff in the marine's direction. "I would hate to damage you. The aliens are charging so much for live marine slaves."
"You defiled me! You tampered with my head and who knows what else!" Azeroth stormed straight up to the man and reared back to strike him with the bolt pistol.
The man let out an amused laugh and struck the marine across the chest with his staff. The ring let out a burst of energy and Azeroth was knocked to the floor. Azeroth reached for his pistol which was knocked from his reach by the end of the staff.
"You had such potential. You and the others were going to be my greatest followers. With the right implants removed, you would be free to think for yourselves for a change. It took years for us to perfect the deprogramming techniques, but it was well worth it. Imagine, Imperial Marines speaking out against the tyranny of the Emperor. What a statement!"
The governor placed electric ring against the shoulder that Azeroth favored and pinned him to the floor with it. He winced in pain as the electricity surged through his body.
"A universe ruled by man. No more impersonal Emperor to dictate from the hidden Golden Throne. A people ruled by the vibrant populace not the dying husk of a god."
Azeroth struggled with his free arm and, with great effort grabbed the ring and pulled it from his shoulder. "Heresy!" He held it as energy played off of his hand and face and shoved it back at its wielder. The governor staggered back and used his staff for balance. Azeroth stood and began to regain his bearings. "What a fool you are! How dare you assume that you are wiser than Him! You elevate yourself above your station."
"We are all equal! Well, at least we humans are. You are a concoction. A creation of a twisted dictator who would rather subjugate his people with genetically altered warriors than dare take any chance of descent!"
Azeroth had stopped listening. Filled with rage, he jumped to his feet and grabbed the staff with both of his hands. He wrenched the pole from the governor's hands and turned it on him.
"You have been perverted by evil. Your mind has been twisted by treacherous lies and you have been deceived." With a mighty swing, Azeroth struck him with the staff and threw him against the wall. "I would have never served your twisted dreams. My loyalty is locked in my soul, not my organs. That is why I tried to escape from you before and why I will kill you now."
"You will not quench the wave of revolution." The governor spat.
"You will be forgotten. Your revolution, your treason, will be forgotten with your death. I hope that you will have repented by the time you expire." Azeroth swung the staff down on the governor and encircled the man's head with the ring. Electricity began to run through his head and he let out a blood curdling scream. With another thrust of force, he shoved the ring down over the governor's face and round his neck. With it around the throat, Azeroth lifted the man off the ground. The heretic strangled to death as tiny fingers of lightening played across his head and neck.
With a wine and clank of mechanics, the blast door at the head of the room opened. Azeroth turned to see who was entering the room. Standing in the doorway was an abomination of humanity. A pale human adorned in marine armor, but twisted with gruesome skulls and pieces of dried human flesh bolted to it. The blasphemous symbol of a dark god hung on his chest.
"You must be responsible for this perversity!"
The comment was met with maniacal laughter.
"Then you will die as well. Crimes against the Emperor will not be tolerated!"
The twisted human smiled cruelly and lifted his arm. Over his shoulder he signaled with a flick of his fingers. With a demonic growl, two huge dogs bounded into the room.
Azeroth recognized the beasts immediately. Their glowing green eyes stared hungrily at him. The first lurched toward him with its mate close behind. Azeroth readied the staff and grinned confidently. "You will fall before me. I know your secret." He said to the beast.
The creature leapt at him, but he turned and side stepped the attack. As it passed by him, he rammed his shoulder into its hide and rolled with the momentum. He grasped the creatures slimy body with his free hand and, using leverage and the speed of the beasts flight, flung it into the overturned alter which sat some twenty meters behind him.
The marine rolled with the throw and came out of the fall ready to take the second beast. It lunged forward and he swung the staff at it. With deadly aim, he placed the ring of the staff in front of the creatures head as the surprised fiend dove right into it. Azeroth jerked the staff when the creatures head passed through the hoop and spun around with the movement of the creature. As he turned, the helpless dog revolved around him at the end of the staff. Halfway through the first rotation, Azeroth heard two snaps, the first was the creatures neck and the second the staff as it split in two under the stress of the maneuver.
The triumphant marine gripped the metal shard in his hand and charged the first fiend before it could return to its feet. He caught the thing before it rose completely. Gripping its neck with one hand, it plunged the sharpened pole fragment into its ribs repeatedly. When the creature finally shuddered and died, Azeroth impaled the beast again and picked it up. He draped the bloody carcass over the fallen altar where he felt the foul beast belonged.
"They are effective hunters, but they lack greatly in the basic concepts of physics." Azeroth mused back at his foe. He turned and advanced on the enemy.
The surprised nemesis threw down his bolter and drew a wicked looking sword. With a hum, the sword became sheathed in a blue glow and crackled with energy bolts. "I am Champion Drihzel, servant of Lord Tzeentch. I am the great corruptor. I whisper truth to those who listen. I tell the oppressed how to be set free."
"Free like a helpless sheep is freed into a den of wolves. Foul servant of chaos, you have mocked the will of the Emperor for the last time. I will end your corruption!"
"Freedom is open to interpretation. Of course freedom is over rated. I prefer pure dominance. I will enjoy killing you, weakling." Drihzel raised his sword and prepared to cleave the fool in half. As Azeroth neared him, he made a huge arc with his sword and was surprised at the speed at which the intended target dodged the swing. Marines shouldn't move like that. Drihzel turned and winced as blood dripped out from under his arm. He reached up and felt the deep gash between his armor plates just under his arm.
Azeroth stood in the blast door's archway and turned as he spun the wicked combat knife he held in his hand. It dripped in blood and was adorned in symbols of chaos. The marine smiled as he showed Drihzel his own weapon. "It's amazing how fast you can move without all that cumbersome armor." He managed to maintain his taunting ere despite how much he wished he was in the security of a power suit.
The Champion shouted obscenities at his hated enemy and charged him. As Drihzel advanced, Azeroth prepared to dodge the attack as he had before. The sword swing came and he stepped aside, but as he did, his vision slightly blurred. Drihzel appeared to morph into some one far more hideous, more fearsome and the room appeared to change shape before his eyes. Overcome with the vertigo, Azeroth was unable to fully avoid his opponent. The sword passed over his head, but his leg slipped and he started to stumble. The blind charge of Drihzel knocked the marine to the floor and trampled him under foot as the agent of chaos stormed past.
Azeroth coughed up blood and struggled to his feet. A kick had injured his shoulder again and several bones in his chest had broken.
"You don't seem as quick now, blind fool." Drihzel laughed as he relished the pain he had caused. He walked up to the half prone marine and kicked him in the chest with a pneumatic-assisted boot. Azeroth fell back, but managed to roll out of the way of the sword's follow up attack.
Azeroth staggered across the floor as it appeared to morph and shift around him. Colors and images blurred before his eyes. What was going on?!?
Azeroth turned around to receive a backhand to the face. The hit from the gauntlet spun him around and put him back on the floor. As he hit the floor, the pattern on the tile changed and even the smell in the air became more acrid.
"You are such a fool." Azeroth's ability to understand Drihzel's words came and went as the vile creature spoke. ".the Emperor has failed us all. .you stand here and dare to face me." only snippets and phrases could he make out and they seemed not make any sense. ".most beautiful and pure of us all. .see reason. .come to chaos. join my rebellion. .don't throw your life away." The ramblings of the tormented and insane?
"I will never turn away from the Emperor. He is the only purpose that I have. You will not succeed. I can hear the Emperor at the gate. Your death knell has been sounded."
With the last of Azeroth's strength, he attempted to rise to face the perpetuator of heresy. Shocked at the marine's resilience, Drihzel plunged his elbow into the small of Azeroth's back. Azeroth felt his spine creak under the blow and he hit the floor with a thud. Face on the floor, the fallen warrior watched his breath condense on the tile. ".your death knell."
"Will be sounded long after yours!" Drihzel shouted in triumph as he turned his sword downward and prepared to drive it through flesh.
The breath mark on the floor began to slow as Azeroth watched his own air escape him. He winced in pain and closed his eyes to thank the Emperor for this chance to make things right. even though he failed. He opened his eyes and watched as a single white feather fell gently to the ground. Shocked, Azeroth gazed at it as it rested on the tile. It was a perfect feather. Its pure white color was tainted by smudges of blood. Then another feather fell. Then a third feather fell into his view. His skin began to burn with a fire that he had never felt before and hatred welled up from within his heart.
"What are you looking at?!?" Drihzel demanded as he watched the marine reach and grasp at nothing. The look on his victim's face was not one of terror or anguish, but of sorrow and loss. The champion of chaos preferred his combatants to fear him as they died, oh well. He plunged the sword downward, but hit only floor.
Azeroth rolled out of the way as the cruel looking blade struck the tile. He turned onto his back and looked up at Drihzel. His face flashed from sorrow to rage. A rage that could not be matched by any sane man. The marine stood and glared at the Champion of Chaos, the champion of evil. "YOUR DETH KNELL SOUNDS NOW!" he shouted throwing spittle onto Drihzel's face.
Slightly taken aback by the sudden surge of intensity, the champion's sadistic smile faded from his face. He may have been taken off guard by the strange occurrence, but he did not hesitate. Angrily, he drove the sword into Azeroth's stomach.
The blade slid smoothly through Azeroth with a sickening wet slurp. Drihzel watched with satisfaction as the death blow impaled his target. What a worthy kill! The champion smiled and looked up only to find the maddened stare of Azeroth's soulless eyes burning back at him. Hatred blazed in those orbs and then an equally evil grin appeared on that hate- filled face. Shaking from excitement, Azeroth reached up with both hands. His bare hand grabbed Drihzel by the hair and forced his head back. The second hand drove the heretic's own combat knife deep into his throat.
The shocked Drihzel gurgled a final profane insult and slumped lifelessly to the floor. The sword slid from Azeroth's abdomen as the dark warrior fell. Bleeding profusely from his stomach, but still blinded by rage, Azeroth clutched his wound and staggered over his fallen foe. The feathers seemed to float about him like rain and then disappeared as quickly as they fell.
Quivering and sweating profusely, Azeroth fumbled to the dais and collapsed upon it. His blurring vision looked up at the mural. He read the inscription upon the ring. Strength in unity. Power in diversity. Purity in freedom. He coughed and gasped for another breath of air. Emptying his satchel on the floor, he found not a single medical kit among the rations, useless.
His skin was burning and his heart beats rang in his ears. The world seemed to spin. Over the din of the throbbing, he could hear the sound of power suits coming down the corridor. Commander Nerih's voice was barking orders to his men. "I can hear the Emperor at the gate." Azeroth murmured as his eyes dilated.
*****
The chaplain passed by the convulsing brothers as they spit out curses to the enemies of the Chapter. In their jet black armor, they waited for the coming battle. These were the Death Company. These were the selected of the Blood Angels who were shown to be afflicted by the Black Rage. They feared not death. Frenzied by hatred, they could not cling to their lives for they were already dead. They were the walking corpses whose names were already counted among the casualties of the next day's battle. No Death Company member had ever returned alive. They were to die in combat or rage themselves into oblivion.
The one called Azeroth sat among his brothers with sweat streaming down his face. He gripped his bolt pistol and tried to hold back the red vision of his rage. He struggled to hold it back for three more hours. He could not feel the deep wound that had torn away most of his innards. He didn't care. He just needed to keep himself alive for three more hours.
The chaplain lowered himself to Azeroth's level. "Brother, you have been taken with the Black Rage. The origin of your chapter is now known. You are a Blood Angel after all. As a son of Sanguinius, you bear the rage as your birth rite. The images you see before you now are the imprinted last sights of our primarch as he died. It is a part of you. It is a part of me." The marine shook as the chaplain placed a parchment with a protective ward on Azeroth's chest plate and secured it with the wax seal of the Emperor.
"Has your memory returned?" The chaplain asked as he checked Azeroth's eyes.
"Yes." Azeroth growled as he held back the thirst for blood. "Completely." He looked down at his leg and absently brushed a bloody feather off of it.
"What are you?"
"I am a Blood Angel, a holy warrior for the Emperor. I am a tool of his will and the fire to purify his people."
"Good. You will do the Chapter proud tomorrow, Brother Azeroth."
"I am not Azeroth."
"Then who are you?" The Chaplain made ready to scribe his true name in the Book of the Martyrs.
"I am Vengeance."
*****
"As each warrior dies and is laid upon the mighty alter of battle, with toll of bell and scratch of quill we shall count his days in death as in life."
The walk to Beldath's main water reservoir from the command bunker was about an hour and a half, but Azeroth ran. He stood at the edge of the expansive, manmade lake and gazed at his reflection. The governor was down there, under the water. He was sure of it. He discarded pistol and secured the comlink to his belt. The marine kneeled down and peered into the water. He watched his reflection as he traced the scar on his scull.
With a forward roll, Azeroth dove into the water and began to swim towards the bottom of the pool. In the center of the murky pond, a large, steel grill was welded over the main intake tube. He grabbed the grate and pulled it out of the way, the welding joints were fakes. Inside the two meter diameter intake valve, an airlock was nestled quietly out of view.
He entered the airlock and hit the button to shut the exterior door. When the water drained from the room, he ripped the keypad from the wall and the door shorted. He forced it opened and stepped into the room.
Quickly, Azeroth made his way across the equipment room. He snatched a bolt pistol from the weapons rack as he made his way over to the next chamber. This facility was the heart of the governor's resistance. His treachery had spent years to reveal.
"Commander Nerih," Azeroth whispered, "I am very close to the governor, but hold off your bombardment. You will want to have this building intact."
"Why is that, marine?"
"The evidence in this room will show the rebels who or what they are truly following. You will be interested to know the origin of the governor's treachery. Send troops to my location instead."
"What about the governor?"
"I will take care of him. We have history."
*****
Azeroth entered the main chamber of the hidden base. It was a dark chapel with large pillars and banners of purple and silver rings hanging from the ceiling. Priests and clerics in purple robes wandered around the room. The far wall was a mural of a giant silver ring, bathed in exalted light with hands clasping it from all directions.
The monks never heard Azeroth enter the room, but none could ignore the loud shouts of his bolt pistol as it announced his presence. He ran into the room and mowed down the fleeing men as he advanced. He paused to reload his weapon and cough the remaining cultists as they neared the large blast door beneath the graven mural.
A silver altar sat on a raised dais in the middle of the room. On the altar, relics and tombs of the heretical faith sat as an affront to the Emperor. Azeroth jumped up on the dais and gripped the altar with his powerful hands. With a grunt of effort he overturned it and sent metallic artifacts clanging across the floor amid a rain of paper.
From the shadows, a figure adorned in purple and carrying a staff capped with a large silver ring stepped out. "My dear Azeroth, how good of you to return to me."
"YOU!" Azeroth boomed as he leapt from the platform. "I will enjoy watching you die!"
"Temper. You always were such a hot-headed creation." The governor tsked as he waved a finger at the advancing marine.
Azeroth met his tormentor with a hail of bullets. An orange orb encircled the man and deflected the shots harmlessly away.
"I would watch your self, Azeroth." The governor stated grimly as he leveled his staff in the marine's direction. "I would hate to damage you. The aliens are charging so much for live marine slaves."
"You defiled me! You tampered with my head and who knows what else!" Azeroth stormed straight up to the man and reared back to strike him with the bolt pistol.
The man let out an amused laugh and struck the marine across the chest with his staff. The ring let out a burst of energy and Azeroth was knocked to the floor. Azeroth reached for his pistol which was knocked from his reach by the end of the staff.
"You had such potential. You and the others were going to be my greatest followers. With the right implants removed, you would be free to think for yourselves for a change. It took years for us to perfect the deprogramming techniques, but it was well worth it. Imagine, Imperial Marines speaking out against the tyranny of the Emperor. What a statement!"
The governor placed electric ring against the shoulder that Azeroth favored and pinned him to the floor with it. He winced in pain as the electricity surged through his body.
"A universe ruled by man. No more impersonal Emperor to dictate from the hidden Golden Throne. A people ruled by the vibrant populace not the dying husk of a god."
Azeroth struggled with his free arm and, with great effort grabbed the ring and pulled it from his shoulder. "Heresy!" He held it as energy played off of his hand and face and shoved it back at its wielder. The governor staggered back and used his staff for balance. Azeroth stood and began to regain his bearings. "What a fool you are! How dare you assume that you are wiser than Him! You elevate yourself above your station."
"We are all equal! Well, at least we humans are. You are a concoction. A creation of a twisted dictator who would rather subjugate his people with genetically altered warriors than dare take any chance of descent!"
Azeroth had stopped listening. Filled with rage, he jumped to his feet and grabbed the staff with both of his hands. He wrenched the pole from the governor's hands and turned it on him.
"You have been perverted by evil. Your mind has been twisted by treacherous lies and you have been deceived." With a mighty swing, Azeroth struck him with the staff and threw him against the wall. "I would have never served your twisted dreams. My loyalty is locked in my soul, not my organs. That is why I tried to escape from you before and why I will kill you now."
"You will not quench the wave of revolution." The governor spat.
"You will be forgotten. Your revolution, your treason, will be forgotten with your death. I hope that you will have repented by the time you expire." Azeroth swung the staff down on the governor and encircled the man's head with the ring. Electricity began to run through his head and he let out a blood curdling scream. With another thrust of force, he shoved the ring down over the governor's face and round his neck. With it around the throat, Azeroth lifted the man off the ground. The heretic strangled to death as tiny fingers of lightening played across his head and neck.
With a wine and clank of mechanics, the blast door at the head of the room opened. Azeroth turned to see who was entering the room. Standing in the doorway was an abomination of humanity. A pale human adorned in marine armor, but twisted with gruesome skulls and pieces of dried human flesh bolted to it. The blasphemous symbol of a dark god hung on his chest.
"You must be responsible for this perversity!"
The comment was met with maniacal laughter.
"Then you will die as well. Crimes against the Emperor will not be tolerated!"
The twisted human smiled cruelly and lifted his arm. Over his shoulder he signaled with a flick of his fingers. With a demonic growl, two huge dogs bounded into the room.
Azeroth recognized the beasts immediately. Their glowing green eyes stared hungrily at him. The first lurched toward him with its mate close behind. Azeroth readied the staff and grinned confidently. "You will fall before me. I know your secret." He said to the beast.
The creature leapt at him, but he turned and side stepped the attack. As it passed by him, he rammed his shoulder into its hide and rolled with the momentum. He grasped the creatures slimy body with his free hand and, using leverage and the speed of the beasts flight, flung it into the overturned alter which sat some twenty meters behind him.
The marine rolled with the throw and came out of the fall ready to take the second beast. It lunged forward and he swung the staff at it. With deadly aim, he placed the ring of the staff in front of the creatures head as the surprised fiend dove right into it. Azeroth jerked the staff when the creatures head passed through the hoop and spun around with the movement of the creature. As he turned, the helpless dog revolved around him at the end of the staff. Halfway through the first rotation, Azeroth heard two snaps, the first was the creatures neck and the second the staff as it split in two under the stress of the maneuver.
The triumphant marine gripped the metal shard in his hand and charged the first fiend before it could return to its feet. He caught the thing before it rose completely. Gripping its neck with one hand, it plunged the sharpened pole fragment into its ribs repeatedly. When the creature finally shuddered and died, Azeroth impaled the beast again and picked it up. He draped the bloody carcass over the fallen altar where he felt the foul beast belonged.
"They are effective hunters, but they lack greatly in the basic concepts of physics." Azeroth mused back at his foe. He turned and advanced on the enemy.
The surprised nemesis threw down his bolter and drew a wicked looking sword. With a hum, the sword became sheathed in a blue glow and crackled with energy bolts. "I am Champion Drihzel, servant of Lord Tzeentch. I am the great corruptor. I whisper truth to those who listen. I tell the oppressed how to be set free."
"Free like a helpless sheep is freed into a den of wolves. Foul servant of chaos, you have mocked the will of the Emperor for the last time. I will end your corruption!"
"Freedom is open to interpretation. Of course freedom is over rated. I prefer pure dominance. I will enjoy killing you, weakling." Drihzel raised his sword and prepared to cleave the fool in half. As Azeroth neared him, he made a huge arc with his sword and was surprised at the speed at which the intended target dodged the swing. Marines shouldn't move like that. Drihzel turned and winced as blood dripped out from under his arm. He reached up and felt the deep gash between his armor plates just under his arm.
Azeroth stood in the blast door's archway and turned as he spun the wicked combat knife he held in his hand. It dripped in blood and was adorned in symbols of chaos. The marine smiled as he showed Drihzel his own weapon. "It's amazing how fast you can move without all that cumbersome armor." He managed to maintain his taunting ere despite how much he wished he was in the security of a power suit.
The Champion shouted obscenities at his hated enemy and charged him. As Drihzel advanced, Azeroth prepared to dodge the attack as he had before. The sword swing came and he stepped aside, but as he did, his vision slightly blurred. Drihzel appeared to morph into some one far more hideous, more fearsome and the room appeared to change shape before his eyes. Overcome with the vertigo, Azeroth was unable to fully avoid his opponent. The sword passed over his head, but his leg slipped and he started to stumble. The blind charge of Drihzel knocked the marine to the floor and trampled him under foot as the agent of chaos stormed past.
Azeroth coughed up blood and struggled to his feet. A kick had injured his shoulder again and several bones in his chest had broken.
"You don't seem as quick now, blind fool." Drihzel laughed as he relished the pain he had caused. He walked up to the half prone marine and kicked him in the chest with a pneumatic-assisted boot. Azeroth fell back, but managed to roll out of the way of the sword's follow up attack.
Azeroth staggered across the floor as it appeared to morph and shift around him. Colors and images blurred before his eyes. What was going on?!?
Azeroth turned around to receive a backhand to the face. The hit from the gauntlet spun him around and put him back on the floor. As he hit the floor, the pattern on the tile changed and even the smell in the air became more acrid.
"You are such a fool." Azeroth's ability to understand Drihzel's words came and went as the vile creature spoke. ".the Emperor has failed us all. .you stand here and dare to face me." only snippets and phrases could he make out and they seemed not make any sense. ".most beautiful and pure of us all. .see reason. .come to chaos. join my rebellion. .don't throw your life away." The ramblings of the tormented and insane?
"I will never turn away from the Emperor. He is the only purpose that I have. You will not succeed. I can hear the Emperor at the gate. Your death knell has been sounded."
With the last of Azeroth's strength, he attempted to rise to face the perpetuator of heresy. Shocked at the marine's resilience, Drihzel plunged his elbow into the small of Azeroth's back. Azeroth felt his spine creak under the blow and he hit the floor with a thud. Face on the floor, the fallen warrior watched his breath condense on the tile. ".your death knell."
"Will be sounded long after yours!" Drihzel shouted in triumph as he turned his sword downward and prepared to drive it through flesh.
The breath mark on the floor began to slow as Azeroth watched his own air escape him. He winced in pain and closed his eyes to thank the Emperor for this chance to make things right. even though he failed. He opened his eyes and watched as a single white feather fell gently to the ground. Shocked, Azeroth gazed at it as it rested on the tile. It was a perfect feather. Its pure white color was tainted by smudges of blood. Then another feather fell. Then a third feather fell into his view. His skin began to burn with a fire that he had never felt before and hatred welled up from within his heart.
"What are you looking at?!?" Drihzel demanded as he watched the marine reach and grasp at nothing. The look on his victim's face was not one of terror or anguish, but of sorrow and loss. The champion of chaos preferred his combatants to fear him as they died, oh well. He plunged the sword downward, but hit only floor.
Azeroth rolled out of the way as the cruel looking blade struck the tile. He turned onto his back and looked up at Drihzel. His face flashed from sorrow to rage. A rage that could not be matched by any sane man. The marine stood and glared at the Champion of Chaos, the champion of evil. "YOUR DETH KNELL SOUNDS NOW!" he shouted throwing spittle onto Drihzel's face.
Slightly taken aback by the sudden surge of intensity, the champion's sadistic smile faded from his face. He may have been taken off guard by the strange occurrence, but he did not hesitate. Angrily, he drove the sword into Azeroth's stomach.
The blade slid smoothly through Azeroth with a sickening wet slurp. Drihzel watched with satisfaction as the death blow impaled his target. What a worthy kill! The champion smiled and looked up only to find the maddened stare of Azeroth's soulless eyes burning back at him. Hatred blazed in those orbs and then an equally evil grin appeared on that hate- filled face. Shaking from excitement, Azeroth reached up with both hands. His bare hand grabbed Drihzel by the hair and forced his head back. The second hand drove the heretic's own combat knife deep into his throat.
The shocked Drihzel gurgled a final profane insult and slumped lifelessly to the floor. The sword slid from Azeroth's abdomen as the dark warrior fell. Bleeding profusely from his stomach, but still blinded by rage, Azeroth clutched his wound and staggered over his fallen foe. The feathers seemed to float about him like rain and then disappeared as quickly as they fell.
Quivering and sweating profusely, Azeroth fumbled to the dais and collapsed upon it. His blurring vision looked up at the mural. He read the inscription upon the ring. Strength in unity. Power in diversity. Purity in freedom. He coughed and gasped for another breath of air. Emptying his satchel on the floor, he found not a single medical kit among the rations, useless.
His skin was burning and his heart beats rang in his ears. The world seemed to spin. Over the din of the throbbing, he could hear the sound of power suits coming down the corridor. Commander Nerih's voice was barking orders to his men. "I can hear the Emperor at the gate." Azeroth murmured as his eyes dilated.
*****
The chaplain passed by the convulsing brothers as they spit out curses to the enemies of the Chapter. In their jet black armor, they waited for the coming battle. These were the Death Company. These were the selected of the Blood Angels who were shown to be afflicted by the Black Rage. They feared not death. Frenzied by hatred, they could not cling to their lives for they were already dead. They were the walking corpses whose names were already counted among the casualties of the next day's battle. No Death Company member had ever returned alive. They were to die in combat or rage themselves into oblivion.
The one called Azeroth sat among his brothers with sweat streaming down his face. He gripped his bolt pistol and tried to hold back the red vision of his rage. He struggled to hold it back for three more hours. He could not feel the deep wound that had torn away most of his innards. He didn't care. He just needed to keep himself alive for three more hours.
The chaplain lowered himself to Azeroth's level. "Brother, you have been taken with the Black Rage. The origin of your chapter is now known. You are a Blood Angel after all. As a son of Sanguinius, you bear the rage as your birth rite. The images you see before you now are the imprinted last sights of our primarch as he died. It is a part of you. It is a part of me." The marine shook as the chaplain placed a parchment with a protective ward on Azeroth's chest plate and secured it with the wax seal of the Emperor.
"Has your memory returned?" The chaplain asked as he checked Azeroth's eyes.
"Yes." Azeroth growled as he held back the thirst for blood. "Completely." He looked down at his leg and absently brushed a bloody feather off of it.
"What are you?"
"I am a Blood Angel, a holy warrior for the Emperor. I am a tool of his will and the fire to purify his people."
"Good. You will do the Chapter proud tomorrow, Brother Azeroth."
"I am not Azeroth."
"Then who are you?" The Chaplain made ready to scribe his true name in the Book of the Martyrs.
"I am Vengeance."
*****
"As each warrior dies and is laid upon the mighty alter of battle, with toll of bell and scratch of quill we shall count his days in death as in life."